Sunday, July 24, 2016

Palmy Rail-X 2016

Well, another 2 years, another Rail-X.

Again this year I joined the peanut galley to make models while the masses loo on in mostly bemusement. On Saturday I spent the day building some larger scale track, while B 0-4-4-0 flew the flag by working on his model of Conns Creek. After the completion of the track work on Saturday night, we had to come up with a way to clean off the residual flux at the venue.
Cue the kitchen sink and a couple of table spoons of bicarb.

We then patted the track work dry with hand towels, did a quick runner and no one was any the wiser...

On Sunday morning, I had a crack at the Tomytec bus chassis. In the previous post on this topic I had pointed out that there needed to be a visit to the chop shop. After having a bit of a think I came up with a plan. After doing a bit of measurement some brass tube was soldered to nickel silver shim to create a hinge type contraption with the front steering unit attached to one side of the hinge and the rest of the mech attached to the other. I added a second piece of nickel silver to act as a clip to hold everything together.

I then added a few bits of cardboard to hold the top in about the right place and stuck it on temporarily

The rear wheel looks a bit odd due to the photo angle but it is actually in the right place.
I didn't have any road prepared but it roamed the table with a surprising amount of grunt.

Finally, I quickly knocked together a test piece to check if an idea I had for a bush tram layout would work. using some of the grass mat and some code 40 track, plus a handful of donated scenics, I knocked up the idea in about 30 minutes.

It needs a shave in places but for a first attempt I think it shows promise.

7 comments:

It was a great privilege to see the micro-engineering Head Druff put into the front of the bus to move the steering mechanism forward by 2 wheel diameters. A valuable lesson to me on what can be achieved and how to do it properly.It was also a privilege to receive further personal tuition from Herr Druff on track building, sorting out the electrical connections/insulations ready for wiring up hand-made points, and building the push-rod points changers.Another highlight of a great week-end was enjoying the Druff's home brewed dark beer. Bluntly, it is better than the dark beers currently being sold by esteemed brewers such as Emersons and Tuatara.

The new Tomytec bus chassis are coming out soon with usb charging for the enclosed lithium battery and head and possibly tail lights . Initially only sold as a complete set with roadway, etc. First up will be a long cantilever bus. One of the new chassis looks like it will be suitable for a truck. Nice job on that chassis!

The USB charger is nice but at $60 US its a bit steep to start cutting up. I think I could probably re-arange the operating bits in the cheap ones to make a truck of some sort, but there are no suitable bodies in teh era that I want. A Bedford RL would be ideal....

absolutely! I remember getting sick in the back of RL army Bedford's when doing army cadets in the school holidays at Burnham camp. Fumes from exhaust were bad unless you were lucky enough to be near the tailgate